'Whites must compensate'

"IT'S payback time. For more than 350 years, whites were at the helm of our country, and now that blacks are in power, whites should compensate us."

"IT'S payback time. For more than 350 years, whites were at the helm of our country, and now that blacks are in power, whites should compensate us."

This was said by eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba on Friday. He was addressing pupils at Ncandu Combined School - a poor farm school in Newcastle, northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Mlaba, as chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal Local Government Association donated desks to the school.

"President Zuma's new administration has prioritised education. If we do not do something about schools like this one, challenges faced by farm schools will not go away.

"That is why I say it's payback time. It's time for whites to compensate us by contributing to poor schools so that black children can enjoy the same benefits as their children. But we need to form partnerships with well established schools," he said. - Canaan Mdletshe